Kingston Upon Hull's Digital Community

The future of magazines

“Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, and luscious photography that draws the eye. And they’re so easy and enjoyable to read. Can we marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-readers sure to arrive in 2010?”

Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, and luscious photography that draws the eye. And they’re so easy and enjoyable to read. Can we marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-readers sure to arrive in 2010?

This was the question which Berg London and Bonnier R&D posed and they’ve been working together to deliver the Mag+ concept.

The concept of a digital magazine of some description has started to really gain traction this year, possibly driven by the strong, (and substantiated?) rumours around Apple’s Tablet device.

There is also the understanding that journalism is changing, and the way we consume media and news will be changing. (Adam Westbrook writes an excellent blog on the Future of Journalism and covers his top trends for 2010 in the latest post).

The Mag+ project looks stunning, and is certainly the most well though through and polished concept. Wired has their version too, and notably Sports Illustrated, which is also impressive.

Are digital magazines going to take off the same way “music in your pocket” took off with the iPod?

There are certainly a few questions / stumbling blocks that will need looking into:

1. The device we use to read them – will Apple corner the market like they did with music?
2. The cost of said device
3. Will it feel like a magazine, have that collectability and will people like this?
4. Delivery of content? Will it need a wifi network or will it work ok over 3g (we can but hope for 4g!)
5. How will the subscription models work? We all know about the rumpus of paid subscriptions for news site, driven by Mr Murdock

We would be interested to hear your thoughts about this? What do you think? What are the questions you have? And ultimately, would you buy a device and subscribe to content?

If anyone knows someone who is actively exploring this area of the digital market, please do get in touch, we would love to speak to them.

About admin

Jon founded Hull Digital, Kingston Upon Hull's Digital and Technology community in January 2009, and also runs East Yorkshire's digital conference, HDLive.
He runs theappleofmyi helping brands, businesses and people be more successful online and has clients locally, as well as across the UK and internationally. He speaks regularly as a marketing / technology and online commentator at events and on the radio.
He is a keen cyclist, skier, dedicated Apple fan and is apparently addicted to "nice gear".
View all posts by admin →